Springfield City Councilor Zaida Govan stands on the median at a busy stretch of Parker Street urging motorists to slow down.
Reminder Publishing file photo
SPRINGFIELD — As long as there has been traffic, there have been traffic crashes. So far this year, there have been more than 108,000 traffic crashes across the state.
While the portion of these accidents that result in fatalities is relatively small, hundreds of people die on Massachusetts roads annually.
Each year, the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims takes place on the third Sunday of November, remembering the people who have lost their lives in collisions on roadways around the world.
A United Kingdom-based charity, RoadPeace, began the event locally in 1993. Part memorial, part awareness campaign, the event was adopted by the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims two years later. In 2005, the United Nations General Assembly established the World Day of Remembrance. The General Assembly set a goal in 2020 to reduce global deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes by half, with a target date of 2030.
This year, one in 10 communities in Massachusetts marked the occasion. “This is the fourth year in a row we’ve done it on a larger scale,” said Betsy Johnson of Walk-Bike Springfield. The organization organized an event on Nov. 16 during which 35 pairs of yellow shoes, representing the 35 people who were killed in traffic crashes across Hampden County this year, were placed on the stairs of Central Library in Springfield.
According to the World Health Organization, it is estimated that 1.19 million people die each year from traffic crashes. Meanwhile, in the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that 17,140 died in motor vehicle traffic crashes during the first six months of 2025. That number is 8.2% lower than the same period last year.
Of the 2,549 traffic crashes in Springfield in 2024 that were recorded by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation’s Crash Portal, 11 were fatal, said Springfield Police Department Public Information Officer Ryan Walsh. So far, this year, there have been the same number of fatalities among the 2,900 crashes that have occurred in the city.
Johnson said there are “three E’s” to traffic safety: education, enforcement and engineering. Walk-Bike Springfield aims to educate drivers through standouts along roadways, holding signs that urge people to slow down.
When it comes to engineering, Johnson said the city needs to install more crosswalks. “There’s a mile-long stretch on Worthington,” she said, “not a single crosswalk.”
Johnson said raised crosswalks in particular can contribute to lower numbers of pedestrian traffic deaths. She pointed to West Springfield, which she said has installed several raised crosswalks over the past few years. Despite having about half as many crashes as Springfield in 2024, it had one-sixth the fatalities. According to the federal Highway Administration, raised crosswalks can reduce pedestrian crashes by 45%.
There are other traffic calming measures that Walk-Bike Springfield is a proponent of, including speed humps. Johnson recognized that installing speed humps requires funding. However, she said restriping the roads is inexpensive and can also have an impact. “Paint is relatively cheap. Narrowing streets with paint and doing more with paint can do a lot,” she said.
More information about Walk-Bike Springfield can be found at walkbikespringfieldma.org. Visit worlddayofremembrance.org to learn more about World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims.
